I began this book by suggesting that a comprehensive explanation for political violence lies in a research design that integrates three different levels of analysis: macro, meso, and micro. Now, having applied this method to the complex histories of political violence in Italy and Germany, I think it appropriate to return to some of the initial questions I raised and, drawing on the data I have presented, attempt to offer an explanation that combines insights from three different angles: from a theory of conflict, a theory of mobilization, and a theory of activism.

Some empirical questions are raised by our historical and cross-national comparison of political violence in Italy and Germany during the past three decades. Why did political violence, in all its various manifestations (spontaneous, semimilitary, autonomous, and clandestine), emerge in Italy and Germany? Why did violence peak in both countries in the seventies? And why was there in general more violence in Italy than in Germany, though ultimately more persistent violence in Germany?

In the preceding chapters I suggested several explanations for these phenomena, looking first at external conditions (the macro-level), then at organized group dynamics (the meso-level), and finally at individual perceptions and motivations (the micro-level). We observed that at each stage in the evolving cycle of violence, one of these three levels played the dominant role. Political and social conditions initially affected developments at the meso- and the micro-levels.